Rating: 
Summary: Captivating!
Review: It's rare that I read an original novel AFTER seeing the movie first, but, once I saw the film version of "The English Patient," I wanted to read the novel itself because if the movie was as good as it was, the novel had to be just as good (if not better). I was definitely not disappointed. This is one of the most beautifully descriptive novels I have ever read. The author's choice of words is exquisite, and he conveys the images in his novel perfectly. Had I NOT seen the movie before reading the novel, I could have gotten just as good a visual from just reading Ondaatje's words on the page. This is the only novel by Ondaatje that I've read, but I'm anxious to read some of his other works.
Rating: 
Summary: This book has been an anchor in turbulent times!
Review: I admit it. It took me quite a long time to finally purchase the book, due to the fact that it just sounded too depressing for even my dark soul to stomach. When I finally did read it, in 1993, I not only loved it with every fiber of my being, but also found myself drawing bits of the sentiments expressed about love, such as "seas move away, why not lovers?". In short, the novel has been more than just a story, but instead has served as a bible, or at least as a substitute for Prozac. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend a lcecture given by Michael Ondaatje at the University of Texas at Austin in 1995, and when I joined the throng to have my paperback copy signed (the edition with the beautiful Beaton photo) Ondaatje took a disdainful look at my raggedly book, & asked me what the hell I had done with it. I was forced to admit that I read it in the shower & the bath. I also asked him a question regarding the word "felhommny"! ; or the dusk of graves. He was as enigmatic in his answer as the passage is in the story. I think the novel has a great deal to teach individuals coping with the realities of a post-modern world: our survival as a PLANET depends on our sucess in being able to transcend nationalities/ethnic identity( and by this I do not mean that people should not be free to express/live their cultures) and in our ability to make the most of the present. The movie was inadequate in that it ignored Kip's significance as the moral center of the novel, and also for the fact that it could not resist simplifying the war into what Americans can understand easily: the good guys (i.e. Americans) against the evil German (Nazi's: not that they weren't abhorently evil, that is a fact beyond dispute). But the end of the novel is a strong statement about what the browm and black people of this planet have faced since WWII.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of Both Worlds
Review: I saw the movie first and fell in love with the story. All too often film adaptations are a betrayal of an author's splendid story-telling. Anthony Minghella is a rare talent in the film industry who does not allow his ego to get in the way of Michael Ondaatje's good story. Anyone who saw the movie will love the book for its added insight and detail. Anyone who read the book will love the movie for its splendid visual adaptation. The reader and the viewer enjoy the best of both worlds.My only criticism of the book is that the poet occasionally got in the way of the novelist. Several times, I found myself having to reread dialogue to figure out who was saying what to whom.
Rating:
Summary: A book that sings
Review: I cannot add more than what others have already said about this book. Each page, each paragraph, each sentence and each word sings with descritions of time and place that carry you off to not only the distant world of 1944 Africa and Italy, but to whatever world your subconscious longs to go. Those who assert the characters are not fully developed or that the plot is thin, I would not argue the point. I can only say this is not a John Grisham novel nor should it be read by those who desire such. Read it for the love of the beauty of language, when done for that reason the book will not dissapoint.
Rating:
Summary: A completely passionate and enrapturing love story.
Review: The story of love betweeen Almassy and Katherine is a story to live on through the ages of mankind. The sadness and beauty of it totally captivates the reader and brings them into the world of Count Almassy and Katherine Clifton. An endless story of love, loss, and acceptance.
Rating:
Summary: Read it...then read it again.
Review: Savour every word, every image. Read it slowly. Where else have we ever read of a desert being described as a "...rumour of wells...a palace of winds?" Ondaatje is a master of poetic prose and uses the stream of conciousness technique in a manner more accessible than any writer before him. Sometimes the plot and character definitions get lost in the descriptiveness, but that's not the point of this novel. The characters are somewhat ambiguous (intentionally), but a deep reading shows them to be intricate. Kip and Hana both serve the same function in the war - they save lives, one a nurse and the other a defuser of bombs and mines. The interrogator Caravaggio and the English Patient are both veterans of the darker side of the war, one a spy and the other a traitor. There are morals in this story (and preserved in the film). The hot romance of the English patient and Katharine is bankrupt if beautiful. Violent, even. This is a deception and their loss of each other is ironic; her dying in the desert, taunted by the swimmers in the cave, longing for wet England, her homeland by the sea where the wished to die; he burns and stays burnt in a purgatory, and, similar to Herodotus his master, always thought of as a liar, doomed to recount his story, his wrongs and have revealed his mistakes that cost them both their honour and their lives. Both are punished. Kip and Hana are opposites to this. There love is ripped away by the blast of atoms from Asia. The outside world of war and circumstance, the irredeemable nature of their different skin colour (when Caravaggio asks her why she cannot marry Kip, she responds by pouring white milk over Kip's dark skin) conspire against them. Theirs is the lost love, the romantic love. Ondaatje fools us. Blinds us with passion, so to speak. And the language... Has the English language ever sounded so good? Read parts aloud and the power of poetry is revealed in his prose. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Enveloping and sensuous
Review: (No wonder Ondaatje's become a sex symbol here in Canada)...Ondaatje's novel has certainly garnered some mixed reviews; I'm of the camp that adores this book. When I read it, I am humbled and awed by the English language. The prose is exquisite, every word, every sentence is carefully crafted. One needs to invest time, and silence, and an appreciation for the written word in order to reap the benefits of this book. Ondaatje does not serve his readers with larger than life charaters or whirlwind action. These pages are a meeting ground for his marvelous language and our ability to be moved by his words. Language is really what this book is about. Ondaatje is a superb craftsman and poet. PS; He was born in Sri Lanka, not India, though he has lived in Canada for almost forty years. Read his excellent memoir, Running in the Family, in which he writes about his privileged, Dutch-Ceylonese heritage.
Rating: 
Summary: I didn't care about the characters, but beautiful images.
Review: I read this book because I was disapointed in the movie. The underlying plot of love, adultery and quests in the dessert called to my heart and I longed to read the "real story". What I found was the movie represented the book - for once- at its downfall. In order to have a "vilian" as the main character, the reader must connent with him. I did not. I wanted to, I wanted to see one redeaming quality revealed. I searched a searched to be only dissapointed. The images are beautiful, the writing poetic and inticing. One can smell dry air and taist the sand in one's teeth. But the characters are 2-dimentional, emotionally flat and did not "captive the soul". This is not a book that kept me awake at night, mulling over details. I recommend The English Patient overall, it is worth the read. Don't expect to gain intimacy with the characters.
Rating:
Summary: Plot suffers at the cost of beautiful writing....
Review: This book by Mr. Ondaatje pulls the reader in, and loses him in a sandstorm of beautifully descriptive passages. Granted, the language was of a high quality and deep meaning, however, the amount of flowery language overwhelms the otherwise encapturing plot. The parrallels between what once was and what now is (for example, Hana's relationship with Kip and with the English patient) lose substance and freshness with superfluous description. All in all, a good story and intent is undermined by a passionate author's insistence on making everything obvious to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: A novel for its aesthetic value.
Review: The English Patient is simply a beautifully written novel. The love and romance is presented with powerful imagery and poetic language. Unfortunately, the storyline is quite difficult to follow and sometimes the poeticism of the prose becomes overwhelming. However, for readers who enjoy reading a novel purely for its aesthetic value will find The English Patient highly enticing.
| 
